A new chapter in the tale of Indonesia’s “hobbit” fills in details of its backstory and provides a bittersweet legacy for the little hominin’s greatest champion.
First described in 2004 from fossils discovered at Liang Bua, a cave on the island of Flores, the meter-tall Homo floresiensis was instantly nicknamed after J.R.R. Tolkien’s diminutive characters. However, researchers have argued about whether it was a distinct species or an isolated population of deformed or diseased modern humans. (Dating analysis has established the fossils are more than 50,000 years old.)
For two years, Indonesian authorities had denied researchers access to Liang Bua. That forced the hobbit’s discoverer, Australian archaeologist Michael Morwood, and team members, including paleontologist Gert van den Bergh, to continue their research elsewhere on the island.
A partial hominin jawbone. | Kinez Riza
In Nature in June, van den Bergh and his team announced finding hominin fossils of at least ...
